Q218 :In my home country there are many people who
do not follow Islam or fulfill its major duties, such as prayer.
Instead, they attend graveyards and visit the tombs of some religious
personalities, asking for their help. They do not miss performing
“fatihah” every month, on the first Thursday of the new moon. How will
this type of people be treated by Allah on the day of judgment?
A218 : We cannot say how Allah will deal with
anybody on the day of judgment. He will administer His absolute justice
to all. He knows the special circumstances, the intentions, the motives
and the objectives of everyone. He values every action by every
individual in the fairest of manners. What we can do, however, is to
judge people’s actions as they appear to us in the light of divine
guidance provided by Allah in the Qur’an and in the light of the Sunnah
of the Prophet. That should give us a very good idea whether a certain
kind of action is acceptable or not. The first thing to say about such
people is that they do not attend regularly to their most essential
Islamic duties, such as prayers. The Prophet describes prayers as the
mainstay of the Islamic faith. He explains that by adding: “He who
attends to it (i.e. prayer) provides his faith with strongest support,
while he who neglects it, allows his faith to collapse.” Moreover, a
person who neglects his prayer is more likely to neglect his other
Islamic duties. It is a fact of life that a person who does not attend
to his prayer is also not likely to have much reward from Allah. There
will be little to his credit on the day of judgment. Yet these people
try to satisfy their natural desire to be religious by resorting to
practices that give them such an appearance. They visit the graves and
tombs of those whom they consider saints. Because they give those dead
people such a status, they imagine that they have special privileges
and powers. It may be true that the dead people whose graves they visit
were of high religious standing and it may be true that they have been
given certain privileges by Allah, but they are not of the type which
enables them to respond to the requests of those who visit their
graves. No dead person can be of any benefit to the living. Allah has
not given anyone that power. Indeed, a dead person can be of no benefit
even to himself. The Prophet tells us that “when a human being dies,
his actions nete to an absolute end, except in one of three ways: A
continuing act of charity, a useful contribution to knowledge or a
dutiful child who prays for him.” In other words, the living can be of
benefit to the dead by praying Allah on his behalf, but the dead cannot
be of benefit to the living. When those people, whom you have
described, go to such graves in order to request the dead to help them,
they engage in futile action. Moreover, they are indeed guilty of the
worst type of sin, namely, associating partners with Allah. Their
practice can only be described as “worshipping graves”. The “fatihah”
is a certain type of ritual when people gather to engage in reading
certain verses of the Qur’an and certain phrases of glorification of
Allah thousands of times. This is coupled with other rituals such as
preparation of food, which is placed at a particular point before
starting and then eaten after the whole ritual is over. All this has no
basis whatsoever. It cannot be supported by any Hadith or Qur’anic
verse. As such, it is an innovation which is totally unacceptable. The
Prophet says: “Beware of newly invented matters. For every invented
matter is an innovation and every invented matter is going astray and
every (person) going astray is in hell fire.” (Related by Abu Dawood
and At-Tirmithi). The Prophet also says: “He who innovates something in
this matter of ours, that is not of it, will have it rejected.” When
people engage in such practices, neglecting their duties, they actually
try to give their lives a religious aspect. However, they err because
they do not see the Prophet’s guidance. Indeed, when it is pointed out
to them that their practices are wrong, they are not prepared to listen
to sound advice. They feel that their actions are good because they
have seen some people, whom they consider guides, do them. They err in
not seeking the guidance provided by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon
him, who was sent by Allah to convey His message. Their actions are of
no value, because they do not give them any religious conscience. Their
effect is only to give them a feeling that they have discharged what
religion expects of them. Our religion is not a set of rituals. It is a
constitution and a way of living. It has a very clear code of practice.
Unless it is approached in the manner taught to us by the Prophet, it
does not yield its fruit. If we want to be true Muslims, we have to
follow the Prophet’s guidance. That means discharging our duties and
not adding to the faith of Islam anything that is not part of it.
Unfortunately, such practices are widespread in large areas of the
Muslim world. They are responsible for the backwardness of Muslims
everywhere. Muslims will not regain their strength and proper status
until they disown such practices and regain their Islamic sense. That
sense will guide them along the path set out for us by Prophet
Muhammad, Allah’s last messenger (peace be upon him).
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )